It is tempting to allow
false flattery to ripen pride,
despite our knowledge
that it’s born from a lie
It is tempting to perform
false charity to improve
a meaningless reputation –
what rock of suffering moved?
Self-cherishing is our sickness
the mind of a sneaky bastard
cunningly leading us to evil business
until virtuous focus is mastered
grabs my attention
quick to hold fascination
locked in, samsara
How many times can I be
ripped open and restuffed
before the fabric can’t be resewn
before there is no thread to stitch
before I can’t be mended
How many times can a friendship break
before it must be ended
A small collection of water colour pieces
Purgatory, a short poem
At first! A relief in the shift
this change of suffering
feels like bliss
the release of a burden lifted
But alas! I am still trapped
this leash of attachment
kept me stuck
and now I must adapt
to a different life, a familiar name
and the same shit strife
it’s karma
and I’m hooked again!
Form is empty
Like your tongue, your touch, your taste,
the sound of your voice, your scent in space
and in your impermanence, I’ve found
you’ve an addictive quality not soon replaced
appearing muscular, solid – yet not
and, dependent on past patience, quite hot
so when I reach out to grasp, to touch
my mind makes the form I crave so much
Feeling is empty
But dependent upon your appearance
and in dependence upon mine
I have felt this drunken romance
of two dumb hearts entwined
empty of inherent existence
our feelings grew and grew
now in dependence upon your kindness
I feel my heart in you
Discrimination is empty
To tell this from that
seemed rather straightforward
until our limbs were encumbered
with slick sweat and fatigue
and from under, lungs that heaved
and pressed two chests together
so one could not begin nor end
and certainly neither leave
a body that neither of us owns
made two bodies pleased
Compositional Factors are empty
Appropriated aggregates which function
to cause us suffering from our side
for from this contaminated root
grows our self-grasping apprehending I
and then come the branches of delusions
sprouting their poisonous fruit
yet we’re not tempted like Adam and Eve
Enlightenment is our pure pursuit
Consciousness is empty
Still producing samsara
this mind is like a teeter-totter
so we made compassion our motivation
to take self-cherishing to slaughter
equalizing and exchanging with the other
– how taking and giving make you hotter –
with our self-grasping now destroyed
we are water into water
My name is empty
Never to fall into either extreme
I feel your existence like a dream
so tonight when I lay down my head, and
my hand touches yours in our shared bed
I’ll see one achievement more supreme
than how we transformed one evil deed
now easy to remember we’re mere name
still, my wish for you remaining same.
Intelligence and wisdom are rare
uncommon
problems and suffering are abundant
common
When taking stock of your own burdens
count what beasts find refuge in your flock
find the sum of your denominator
this path is carved from jagged rock
There is a division to set you free
based in what is always true
you can’t spell it without “m” and “e”
but it doesn’t exist without “you”
And if you feel this you is everlasting
you might wish for sweet release
but there’s only one place you find escape
in the depths of your mind . . . already at peace
Such a subtle inner destination
difficult without faith to find
absorbed in gross cessation
a very subtle wind will move a very subtle mind
Only a child dreams that death’s jaws
should be an automatic portal
to a supposed better place – or even an end
It would
be, could be
wiser to pretend
we are already happy
with strength to contend
showing a better character
moral discipline and restraint
with bravery and heart not feint
an honour for which all others thirst
and a mind that always puts others first
To figure out what’s common
to the denominator of your life
you just have to find a wisdom mirror
and let go of mindmade strife
The quality we wish to see
is already present –
it’s just buried beneath
aeons of bad habits . . .
and misguided familiarity
divide it out
for there is no
/me
Suffering is addictive. 10.17.21
What are you reaching for when there’s nothing to grasp? 10.09.21
I no longer wish to meet those
who make me regret my virtue
of course, I can’t excuse my own forfeit of mind
and I never would regret virtuous intention
even when challenged!
Instead, I see clearly that in samsara
there exists no real happiness, no good reputation
no wealth, no status, no good condition
not only failure, misery, and criticism
not only lowly status and painful position
but always departing from what we love
and too often meeting what we hate!
So if i have any regret, it’s saved
for actions throwing me lower than the grave
then I purify completely in three more steps
with reliance, opponent force and firm promise
never again laying claim to hateful mind
never again to drink addictive poisons
never again to grasp, to crave
never again to begin again
the beginningless cycle of suffering
this lifetime I break the chain!
I will die without regret
having used every momently wisely
a cause-creator, achieving true happiness
To feel too deeply
and to be unable to feel
are my two greatest sufferings
and to grasp at the feelings
as inherently existent
my greatest ignorance, their source
The Halfwit Writer